posted 02-23-2012 11:13 AM
Florida Today reports that Cape Canaveral officials are seeking federal approval to add more material -- including segments of NASA and military rocket launch towers -- to an existing 4-square-mile area called the Brevard County Artificial Reef Site 2.

Brevard plans to add parts of bridges, vessels, boulders and other materials to the existing artificial reef.

County officials also hope to add portions of old defunct launch complexes from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. That could help the military and NASA defray costs of disposing of old launch complex material. "Instead, they can invest in a local project," Culver said.

"We would want the structural beams, the large tower-type materials that they have out there," Culver said. "There may be more than we can actually use."

The launch pad materials would first have to be inspected for anything hazardous. No fiberglass, fuel lines, toxic paints or asbestos would be allowed.

Past reef efforts include four giant liquid storage tanks used on the Titan missile program — the so-called Titan Reef — sunk in the fall of 1994 in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force. In July 1989, the Air Force donated materials from obsolete launch pads for another artificial reef.